By The Guardian, UK

If all this swiping to meet contacts sounds too work-centric, Juan Imaz might have the service for you. The Madrid-based founder of beBee believes too many people are thinking too hard about finding contacts that do the same job as them, when actually the best business contacts can come about through shared interests.

BeBee’s focus is to reach out to people who share the same hobby or passion and might also want to do business together further down the line. Within its first year of launch, it claims to have attracted 11 million users, mostly in Spain and Latin America. Discussions are ongoing over launching the service in the UK.

“Whenever you meet a business contact there may be some chat about work and your industry but the main topics of conversation will be what your interests are and what you have in common,” explains Imaz.

BeBee’s focus is to reach out to people who share the same hobby or passion
The idea, he adds, is that people “form groups, or hives as we call them, such as ‘marketers who love football in London’ or whatever it happens to be.”

Imaz met many of the people he has hired through the site and regularly meets contacts in the tech industry through a group for people who love scuba-diving.

Ghostwriter Paul Croubalian believes beBee understands that business is about people and credits the service with providing the deepest engagement with potential clients, often through a shared love of food.

“Certainly it provides way more engagement than all other sites that I am on,” he says. “I recently earned a contract with a multinational with offices in North America, Europe and Asia. That is a substantial amount of business for me, worth about $150,000 over the next nine months or so.”

Whether it involves swiping right to arrange a coffee with a nearby contact or striking up a chat about a shared passion with a potential new business partner, this new generation of networking apps are making it simpler to do something productive – rather than just building a huge list of contacts you are unlikely to ever meet.

beBee is a professional network through passions. Personal interests generate more much engagement, deeper and longer business relationships. Join NOW!!   https://www.bebee.com/bee/franklin-coetzee

be Professional. be Personal. be Successful.